MSP lays in to RBS as execs fail to answer questions over branch closures

SNP MSP Joan McAlpine has said that RBS ‘failed to answer‘ many questions as three senior executives appeared before the Scottish Affairs Committee (SAC) at Westminster this morning.

Ms McAlpine – who has campaigned against RBS branch closures in the south of Scotland -said it was ‘disappointing‘ that RBS had also failed to listen to the anger and frustration voiced by so many of the customers and businesses hit by their branch closure plans.

Ms McAlpine commented:

“It is clear that RBS has no sense of responsibility to communities across Scotland – and it appears to me after that they would have no qualms about cutting services even further in the future.

“I was shocked that Mr McEwan stated he was ‘comfortable’ with the current situation and the number of branches in Scotland he’s planning to close – and I was also very concerned that he refused to guarantee the remaining rural services such as mobile vans – which is what people must rely on if their branch closes.

“Just last week RBS wrote to me, and other elected members to tell us how well they are doing, after making pre-tax profits of £1.2 billion in the first three months of 2018.

“This begs the question why RBS is so desperate for the £9.5 million savings they will make through the branch closures, if they are making those kind of profits.

“When Mr McEwan wrote to me to congratulate himself on RBS’s profits, it was the first time that he had ever written directly to me. He has never replied to me when I have contacted him about the local branch closures in Dumfries and Galloway and across the South of Scotland.

“That irony is completely lost on him and the other RBS executives, and I am deeply disappointed.

The United Nations' Special Rapporteur had this to say on how the UK Govt approaches poverty: “British compassion for those who are suffering has been replaced by a punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous approach." https://t.co/vYdESbMuyV